Mines on the Italian front (World War I)

From 1915, the high peaks of the Dolomites range were an area of fierce mountain warfare. In order to protect their soldiers from enemy fire and the hostile alpine environment, both Austro-Hungarian and Italian military engineers constructed fighting tunnels which offered a degree of cover and allowed better logistics support. In addition to building underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers (like the Italian Strada delle 52 Gallerie), both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's positions.

Between 1 January 1916 and 13 March 1918, a total of 34 mines were detonated in this theatre of war. Of these, 20 were Italian mines aimed at Austro-Hungarian targets and 14 were Austro-Hungarian mines aimed at Italian targets. The size of the explosive charges ranged from 110 kilograms (240 lb) to 50,000 kilograms (110,000 lb) of blasting gelatin. The largest Italian mine held 35,000 kilograms (77,000 lb) of explosive.

 

Focal points of the underground fighting during the War in the Dolomites were Pasubio with 10 mines, Lagazuoi with 5, Col di Lana/Monte Sief also with 5, and Marmolada with 4 mines. The most intense episode was the seven-week period from 16 September to 3 November 1917 which saw 12 mine explosions. After November 1917 and the Italian retreat to Monte Grappa and the Piave river in the aftermath of the Battle of Caporetto, Pasubio with its elevation of 2,239 metres (2,449 yd)^[1] remained the only underground war area on the Austro-Italian front.^[2]

Unlike the mining efforts on the Western Front, where e.g. the mines on the first day of the Somme (1916) were constructed in a chalk and flint area and where e.g. the mines in the Battle of Messines (1917) were constructed in geology dominated by wet sand and clay, the mine galleries on the Austro-Italian front had to be executed at high altitudes in the hard carbonate rock of the Dolomites using hand-operating drilling machines and chisels. Fighting under these conditions, often in exposed areas near mountain peaks and even in glacial ice, required extreme skill of both Austro-Hungarian and Italian miners.

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  Lagazuoi
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  Col di Lana (left) and Monte Sief (right); a large charge was fired beneath the ridge which links the two (see mine #23)
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  Tofane-Castelletto
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  Monte Cimone di Tonezza ossuary
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  Lagorai-Colbricon
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  Plaque for Fausto Filzi, killed on Monte Zebio on 8 June 1917 (see mine #12)
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  Marmolada
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  Pasubio, Italian War Memorial
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  Pasubio, mine rubble on Selletta (Ital) / Eselsrücken (Ger)
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  Schärding, family memorial mentioning sapper corporal Hans Vees, killed in action on Col di Lana on 8 December 1915

The Austro-Hungarian and Italian mining efforts in the high mountain peaks of the Italian front were portrayed in fiction in Luis Trenker's film Mountains on Fire of 1931.

• Mines on the first day of the Somme (1916)
• Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917)
• White War

• Striffler, Robert (1993). Der Minenkrieg in den Dolomiten: Lagazuoi, Schreckenstein. Kienesberger. ISBN 978-3-9239-9508-0.
• Striffler, Robert (1988). Der Minenkrieg in Tirol: Colbricon, Buso del Oro, Marmolata. Kienesberger. ISBN 978-3-9239-9507-3.
• Striffler, Robert (1996). Der Minenkrieg in Ladinien: Col di Lana 1915-1916. Kienesberger. ISBN 978-3-9239-9511-0.
• Striffler, Robert (1999). Der Minenkrieg in Ladinien: Monte Sief 1916-1917. Kienesberger. ISBN 978-3-9239-9517-2.
• Striffler, Robert (2001). Der Minenkrieg auf dem Monte Cimone 1916-1918. Kienesberger. ISBN 978-3-9239-9521-9.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mines on the Italian Front (WW I).

• Robert Striffler, Die 34 Minensprengungen an der Tiroler Gebirgsfront 1916-1918 (1993), online here Archived 2016-09-18 at the Wayback Machine and here (German)
• Der Pasubio und die 59er (German article on the 59th Austrian Infantry Regiment „Archduke Rainer“)
• Simon Jones, Col di Lana and Monte Sief (battlefield imagery)
• Positions on the Col di Lana, 1915
• Plan of the Italian mine fired on Col di Lana, 1916 (1)
• Plan of the Italian mine fired on Col di Lana, 1916 (2)
• View of the access to the Italian mine fired on Col di Lana, 1916
• Plan of the Austro-Hungarian tunnel system on Monte Sief
• Plan of the Austro-Hungarian tunnel system on Pasubio
• Serauta monumental area